Pioneer

Areas of Research

Seminal Works

Edward Louis Bernays (1891-1995) American public relations pioneer

Combining the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Dr. Sigmund Freud, Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the subconscious.

He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the ‘herd instinct’ that Trotter had described.

Bernays also drew on the ideas of Gustave LeBon, the originator of crowd psychology, and of Wilfred Trotter, who promoted similar ideas in the anglophone world in his book Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War.

A journalist, a media critic and a philosopher who tried to reconcile the tensions between liberty and democracy in a complex and modern world, as in his 1920 book Liberty and the News.

During World War I, advised President Woodrow Wilson on drafting of Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

Had wide access to the nation’s decision makers and had no sympathy for communism.

Brought phrase “cold war” to common usage in his 1947 book.

Examined the coverage of newspapers and saw many inaccuracies.

With Charles Merz, in a 1920 study entitled A Test of the News, stated that The New York Times’ coverage of the Bolshevik revolution was biased and inaccurate.

Identified tendency of journalists to generalize about other people based on fixed ideas. He argued that people—including journalists—are more apt to believe “the pictures in their heads” than come to judgment by critical thinking. Humans condense ideas into symbols, he wrote, and journalism, a force quickly becoming the mass media, is an ineffective method of educating the public.

Even if journalists did better jobs of informing the public about important issues, Lippmann believed “the mass of the reading public is not interested in learning and assimilating the results of accurate investigation.” Citizens, he wrote, were too self-centered to care about public policy except as pertaining to pressing local issues.

1957: Claimed that quickly flashing messages “drink Coca-Cola” and “eat popcorn” on a movie screen would influence people to purchase more. This led to a public outcry and many conspiracy theories of governments and cults using the technique for their advantage and the practice was banned in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.

In 1962 Vicary admitted that he fabricated the entire incident

Vance Packard

Brought term to the attention of the general public.

1957 The Hidden Persuaders

Wilson Bryan Key

1973 Subliminal Seduction

Cults and Mind Control

Robert Lifton1928 –Psychiatrist

Studied indoctrination methods used on POWs in Korea and China and concluded that thought reform was possible without violence or physical coercion. Mapped eight methods able to change the minds of individuals without their knowledge.

Controversial “deprogramming” methodsDrew from Singer and Lifton and Festiner’s cognitive dissonance theory. Mind control is a combination of control over behavior, information, thought and emotions. The BITE model dispenses with any required environment control, and its effects can be achieved when the control mechanisms create overall dependency and obedience to some leader or cause.

Critics argue that Steve Hassan uses the term “mind control” to justify the forcible extraction of believers from religious groups. They argue that Hassan does not merely say that fraudulent salesmanship persuaded the believers; he claims that these groups literally take away a victim’s freedom of mind. For this reason an involuntary procedure must operate in order to “rescue” a “victim” from a “destructive cult”, for “victims” may not realize their victimhood status and may resist rescuing. After participating in deprogrammings in the late 1970s, distanced himself from this practice and the criminal activities

Robert Cialdini Social psychology researcher

Showed how mind control is possible through the covert exploitation of the unconscious rules that underlie and facilitate healthy human social interactions. He defines common social rules that can be used to prey upon the unwary:

Reciprocation: Give and Take...and Take

Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind

Social Proof: Truths Are Us

Liking: The Friendly Thief

Authority: Directed Deference

Scarcity: The Rule of the Few

Six broad categories show examples of both mild and extreme mind control (both one on one and in groups), notes the conditions under which each social rule is most easily exploited for false ends, and offers suggestions on how to fight these insidious, and often unconscious mind control methods.

2000Bait and switch ComplianceInfluence, Science and Practice

Anthony Stahelski Social psychological conditioning

Identifies five phases of social psychological conditioning which he calls cult-like conditioning techniques employed by terrorist groups:

World-accommodating movements draw clear distinctions between the spiritual and the worldly spheres. They have few or no consequences for the lives of adherents. These movements adapt to the world but they do not reject or affirm it.

World-affirming movements might not have any rituals or any formal ideology. They may lack most of the characteristics of religious movements. They affirm the world and merely claim to have the means to enable people to unlock their "hidden potential". As examples of world-affirming movements, Wallis mentions Werner Erhard's est and Transcendental Meditation.

Distinguished three types of cults, classified on the basis of the levels of organizational and client (or adherent) involvement

Audience cults which have hardly any organization because participants/consumers lack significant involvement.

Client cults, in which the service-providers exhibit a degree of organization in contrast to their clients. Client cults link into moderate-commitment social networks through which people exchange goods and services. The relationship between clients and the leaders of client cults resembles that of patients and therapists.

Cult movements, which seek to provide services that meet all of their adherents' spiritual needs, although they differ significantly in the degree to which they use mobilize adherents' time and commitment.